In a motor vehicle with a manual transmission, the movements of the gear shift lever are commonly transmitted to the gear box via a cable. In order to facilitate the installation of the cable assembly in the motor vehicle, it is important that some means are provided to adjust the length of the cable in order to provide precise control of the gear box in each installation. A known solution is to use a cable end fitting which comprises means for attachment to a ball pin on the gear shift lever as well as a locking mechanism for locking the cable length, as disclosed for example in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,394,770 and 5,598,743. An assembler manually attaches the cable end fitting to the ball pin in question, and then actuates the locking mechanism, for example by depressing a button. These cable end fittings provide adequate attachment as well as adjusted cable length as long as properly installed. However, there is always a risk of the assembler not actuating the locking mechanism, which results in too much play in the cable and hence in a non-operable gear box.
There is thus a need for an improved cable end fitting device that at least partly removes the above mentioned disadvantage.